Click here for the transcript of Sunday’s live chat, moderated by MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk
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Are the M’s contenders or pretenders? Man, how can anyone ask that? That bullpen is Swiss cheese. I really like the Mariners offense. I think D Santana was an absolute steal. I like their whole OF a lot. But diPoto blew this up. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it was a good thing. But his blow up left them way too many holes for them to just go out and outhit everybody. They have nobody on the backend of the rotation and like I said the BP is god awful. You’d need to acquire 3 relievers and at least one starter to be anywhere close to a contender and that prospect cost would probably set you back real close to square one.
Not saying it’s going to fix their bullpen problem by any means, but in part of trading away pitchers they did aquire Anthony swarzak and hunter Strickland. They are injured at the moment but should be back soon (swarzak this week I believe) so they have been without their top 2 reliever acquisitions to start the year to be fair.
Swarzak was horrible last year and Strickland was okay. I don’t feel much better with either one of them closing out games for me either. Strickland already blew a game while he was still healthy btw.
Gotcha I wasn’t sure if you were aware of them or not. Yeah I don’t think either is closer let alone 8th inning material either but I mean I’d rather have one of them out there than who they currently have. Being a Sox fan and seeing them have issues so far vs the Sox they definitely need them and additional help for sure agreed.
Yeah I mean I’m with you on that. Doesn’t take much to be an upgrade to what they’re currently throwing out there. We haven’t even seen them throw their back of the rotation arms yet which is another huge weakness. It’s just an uphill battle with the moves they made. That was the plan though.
Man I really disagree. I think the Mariners are Craig Kimbrel away from this. Kimbrel’s asking price would put the Mariners at 151 mil or so for the year.. very doable. He would be with the team for the next three years.. through the “rebuild” and under contract when Dipoto expects his team to mature. Felix and his 28 mil a year comes off the books after this season. The starting rotation is very good, especially with KiKuchi (but another starter named Justus Sheffield is chomping at the bit). I think the M’s made some savvy moves and they are showing that it’ll take some big injuries to derail these guys.
It’s been 5 games man. 5 games. I wouldn’t say the starting rotation is very goood either. It’s okay. You’re relying on wade Leblanc and Felix as a 4 and 5. That’s not very good. The bullpen is horrible and Tim Beckham isn’t really an MVP candidate as he’s been playing. If they’re still doing this 2 months from now I’ll start listening but a hot 5 game stretch isn’t enough. I was excited to see how the M’s would come out because I believed they would surprise but it’s an uphill battle for them to keep it going. The pitching won’t sustain this.
But you replace Hernandez with Sheffield who was dominant in Spring Training. And Leblanc was great for a 5th starter last season. The rotation lacks an ace for now, but it’s solid 1-5 once Sheffield comes up.
But the bullpen is horrible, they do have a few prospects in Mills and Warren who should come up at some point. As well as Bautista who dominated in Spring Training but was injured just before the trip to Japan.
Also, Shed Long should be able to take over for Dylan Moore in mid April which should add even more offense, and hopefully better defense.
I do have a feeling the once Seager is ready to return that whichever of Bruce or Encarnacion brings back the most will be traded which will hurt the offense.
The rotation isn’t horrible but you have to be able to win close games. The M’s won more than anyone last year that way. They can’t hold the lead with that bullpen and your starters aside from Leake don’t typically go more than 6 innings. You can’t cobble together 3-4 innings every night from that cesspool of relievers. Beckham got very very hot when he first came to Baltimore too but he’s shown throughout his career that he’ll slow down big time. I think the offense is good just not good enough to overcome everything else right now.
Beckham will definitely tail off but that position is really Crawford’s. He’s a better defender and will likely be up by summer. Then we are talking Beckham as a super utility, and that looks very good to me. I’m pretty happy with the rotation man. I like Marco, KiKuchi, Leake and the Sheffield and Leblanc. I’ll deal with Felix for now. I’m very sure the rotation can sustain a 4 ERA or maybe a little higher. They aren’t bad pitchers. The offense was very quietly balanced. Haniger is a great two hitter, Mallex is a very good lead off guy and Gordon plays to his strengths in the 9 hole. Fill that in with guys who have had big major league seasons and could put those numbers up again like Santana, Bruce, Encarnacion, Seager (eventually), Healy, and Narvaez – well now you have something. The bullpen isn’t great, but Kimbrel would really move that needle. When Bautista, Swarzak, and Strickland are healthy.. Rosscup is a good lefty specialist, it starts to look much better. Throw Felix in there when Sheffield comes up. Not bad and could be enough to hold on to several games for the starters. I know it’s early, I just think they have some components and could really contend. Injuries could set all that off the rails.
Crawford at this time is a below average ML defender at SS, and hasn’t hit in the high minors let alone ML pitching.
He was brought on in the Segura salary dump to placate fans like you that think they have a young core player, so be patient. After a few years the Mariners bring in a legit ML SS.
Compared to him, Anderson of the White Sox and Rosario of the Mets are smooth fielding SS’s with superstar potential with the bat.
* Note – all teams have at least 3 superstars. Like. Really.